Many reactors used for hydroprocessing of hydrocarbonaceous feedstocks consist of a number of catalyst beds. Because of the exothermic nature of hydroprocessing reactions the reactants are generally cooled between catalyst beds by means of injection of a cold quench medium (a gas or liquid). To this end multi-bed hydroprocessing reactors are provided with quenching chambers which are placed between adjacent beds.
In general the injection of the quench medium will compensate for the exothermic temperature rise over the previous catalyst bed, and the quenching chamber may in addition redistribute the reactants and quenching medium uniformly over the following catalyst bed.
Although a large variety of quench chambers is already known there is still a need to provide a multi-bed reactor with a chamber for controlling the temperature in the reactor having an improved mixing efficiency and an improved uniformity of distribution across the reactor.
An object of the present invention is to provide such a reactor.